CHAPTER | TWENTY | FIVE | UMAYMAH | POV

The sound of scraping metals was what was constantly making me squirm - it was torture just having to listen to the sound while my head was pounding. If I could get myself to move, I would have stopped the noise immediately, though my arms would only move an inch and instantly pain would shoot up my limbs. Whatever I had been drugged with must have been was strong.

There was no knowing how long I had been sprawled on the floor in the darkness, though it was a very long time. No one came down to see if I was awake, nor did they bring me any food or water - though I probably wouldn't take it in anyway. I had imagined the scar faced man to have come down here to check up on me, but it looks like he didn't care either. All he had to do was kidnap me and he'd done his job. At least one of us was free to go.

Thump, thump, thump

Being in the dark had somehow heightened my senses and I picked up the sound of footsteps approaching quite quickly. Unfortunately the pain in my limbs made it impossible for me to sit up straight so that whoever was coming down here couldn't see me in a such a feeble position.

I decided to stay laying down and at the moment the door opened will full force, hitting the wall and creating a loud bang. A hiss left my mouth at the impact of the noise which made my head throb - it was even worse that I couldn't use my hands to massage my temple to numb the pain a little.

Light flooded through the room from where the door had opened and I squinted my eyes, lifted my head and moved just a little so that I could see who was in the doorway. What I saw wasn't what I expected at all; I expected someone dressed in all black with a gun and I guess this was the stereotype of a kidnapper, but what I saw definitely did not fill that description.

Standing there was a man, no older than 23 perhaps, dressed in a navy blue suit with shaggy brown hair and piercing blue eyes. He looked like he just came from a business meeting rather than coming to meet his hostage that he was keeping captive. There was a smirk plastered on his face that told me he was up to no good.

"I see you're awake." He stated the obvious and I all but glared at him until he carried on talking, "I come with a proposition for you." That got my interest but I knew I had to be careful with a man like this.

"What do you want?" I asked him, my voice coming out hoarse from lack of water and being knocked out.

This time he came closer and once he was directly in front of me, he bent down to my height and lifted my chin up. This drug had me cowering in pain from all over my body, and so a hiss left my mouth at the contact of skin.

"For you freedom, all you have to do is let your husband come get you. Though, you'll be the only one leaving." My eyes widened at his words and despite knowing what my movements will cause, I shook my head fiercely and felt his hand drop away from my chin.

"Never! I don't care for your proposition. I'd never leave him like that." I spat at him, my words dripping with venom, mirroring how much anger I felt by his words.

He looked thoughtful for a second, the smirk he had a few seconds ago, vanishing. "Well if that's your decision." He said and stood up. For a moment I thought he would leave me down here and never bother me again, but of course fate is too cruel for that to happen. "Get her ready and bring her upstairs to the drawing room. Make sure she looks drool worthy." His words were directed to a blonde than I didn't notice, had stepped in the room.

His words left me in confusion as to why I needed to look the way he wanted me to but I had no time to protest as the blonde had already snapped open my chains. The man left and the blonde stared down at me with distaste in her face.

"Get up, I haven't got all day." Her voice was sharp and knowing not to mess with her, I tried my best to surpress my groans and slowly got up. First on all fours and after a few more seconds, I had finally made it onto my two feet.

My feet wasn't yet used to being used and so as we walked out of the room, I kept my hands on the wall as a support for me not to fall face flat on the floor. The blonde in front of me didn't seem to have any sympathy for me as she carried on walking at a fast pace, making it hard for me to catch up.

Throughout our journey to wherever she was taking me, I had noticed that only the room I was kept in was suitable for a savage. The rest of this place was grand with Persian rugs and patterned wallpapers that made it hard for me to comprehend how they have such a room. Then again these people were evil.

My legs were close to giving up on me many times, but luckily we had stopped walking and instantly Blondie opened the door to reveal a bedroom. Following her inside I took in my surroundings and to my disappointment, it was just an ordinary room with an exception of windows for me to escape from.

"There's a shower in there. Get that stench off you and wear this, but take that scarf off when you come back." She said like she had a million other things to do but chose to spend her time with me. I all but stared at her and then to the piece of fabric she had in her outstretched hands.

I silently took it and looked at her, "what's going to happen to me?" I dared to ask her the question.

"You're going to be looked over by suitors, and if they like you, well you're going to be going home with someone." Realisation sunk in as I understood what her words means and in feat I took a step away from her.

My eyes had widened and the fear was making its way back to me. I had remembered Shoaib saying that Ross sold women but I didn't think that it would be me in this situation. "Please tell me you're joking!" I pleaded with fear evident in my tone.

She simply glared at me as a response and in one movement, pushed me inside the bathroom where I had to clutch the counter so I wouldn't fall. My breathing wasn't as steady as it was before and I contemplated whether or not I should comply to what they were saying. Being in this situation was scary to say the least.

I settled for hoping that Shoaib will come here on time and save me from whatever these men are planning on doing to me. Selling me could involve many things such as raping me or drugging me again, but this time with more illegal substances - the thought enough made me shudder.

After taking as much time as I could in the shower with Blondie banging on the door to hurry up, I got out in a black floor length dress with my back exposed. If this was what they wanted me to go out in then I definitely was going to be putting up a fight.

"Now all we had to do is tame your hair." She said after raking her eyes over my body, making me feel more exposed than I already was.

"No! You can't make me go out there without a scarf." I stood my ground and looked her in the eyes to show that she didn't frighten me and that if they wanted me out there with my hair showing, then they'd have to drag me.

She wasn't having any of it. Without doing my hair like she said she would, she began dragging me out with her nails digging into my skin, making me bleed. I began to struggle against her hold, but it was as if it was made of iron; she wouldn't budge. Tears were threatening to spill knowing what was about to happen and before I knew it, she had already dragged me to the drawing room and threw me on the ground.

My palms hit the floor first, bracing myself for the impact on the fall and once I felt it, it made bite my lip just to stop the scream that was about to come out. Luckily I had landed on soft carpet, but still the fall was hard and the pain from the drug had yet to subside for me to be numb.

"Gentleman, I offer you the masterpiece of today." There it was again. The cold voice belonging to the man that was doing all this to me.

I lifted my head to see Ross with an outstretched hand and I unwillingly held on to it, feeling him pull me up harshly. His hands went on to my lower back, making me squirm under his touch and wishing a hole would swallow me up this instant. Ross however didn't seem bothered by his actions and left his hand there.

Ahead of me sat around 20 men all dressed in the same manner as Ross in business attire and all with the same lustful expression. Their gazes made me feel even more uncomfortable to an extent that I just wanted to run away and hide for the rest of my life. No one made a move to at least look at me discreetly, in fact they all but carried on.

"Now let the bid begin. We will start at $750." The air in my lungs almost vanished upon hearing how much money they were starting off for this bid and I was even more shocked when the men started placing the bids.

"$800."

"$875."

"$900."

"$2000." This time I looked up to see who had just went from $900 to $2000 for me and it was no doubt that he would be taking me as no one else spoke up after him.

He stood tall with a cold expression on his face which made it known that he was harsh - I wouldn't want to know what he would plan on doing to me. The man started walking towards Ross and I at the front with his hands in his pocket and eyes upon me. Tears were now silently washing my cheeks, but I refused to make any sound; it was bad enough I was showing how much this affected me.

"Me Colton, an excellent pick indeed. I hope you'll be happy with her." This Mr Colton only gave a nod in his direction before he grabbed my forearm, quite harshly, and pulled me to his side where he began dragging me.

His actions reminded me of Blondie and I began wondering if everyone likes to drag people around here. I was about to speak up to demand of him to let go but he beat me to it, "you will be coming to stay with me and I might be gone for the rest of the evening. That means no touching anything and no trying to escape. I want you to stay in the house and wait for me to come back. Is that understood?" His cold voice bounced through the empty hallway and I gulped at the cruelty laced with it.

"Y-yes sir." I instantly felt dumb for stammering in front of this man who didn't even have the basic right to see me dressed like this.

He said nothing else and by now we were outside of what I could now see, was a mansion. A car was parked directly in front of us and with no surprise, I was pushed inside as he climbed in after me. There was enough space inside the car and I began making my way further away from him as possible.

However, I didn't even make it to the other side of the car before I was being pulled back. "Never move away from me. Understand?" He had my chin titled upwards so that I can see his face and the anger radiating off him reminded me strangely of Shoaib.

Shoaib. I wonder what he was doing right now - if he had noticed that I was taken. Knowing him, something must have been broken by now due to his anger and the fact that he would be looking for me, gave me an odd sense of relief.

I snapped my attention back to Mr Colton and nodded, unable to find the words to say because I knew it would come out shaky from fear.

The car was already heading somewhere but Mr Colton didn't let go me, as if I was going to pull a stunt and open the car door to run away. I tried not to think too much of his grip on me. I had read and watched too many movies where the girl in this situation does her best to defy everything and then gets punished for it later on and I wasn't going to have a man touch me like that.

Eventually after 15 painful minutes of looking out the car, trying to ignore the person next to me, the car came to a stop and without warning I was being pulled behind Mr Colton himself. I couldn't glare at him to his face, and so I settled with doing it behind his back.

Around me were trees and greenery and from from what I could tell, we were in a secluded area that resembled nothing of my small town. We were now walking inside of what looked like a similar mansion to the one we just came out of, though this one was much better.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked once he had stopped walking.

I saw him turn around to look down at me before he closed his eyes and ran a hand down his face. "Oh for god sake, Martha!" I visibly cowered away from him as soon as he raised his voice but made no sound.

From the corner of my eye I could see a short woman running over to us with a worried expression. She wasn't worried for me, she was worried about herself.

"Yes sir?" She asked and I barely made out her voice. If it wasn't for the fact that I saw her lips moving, I wouldn't have known she had uttered a word.

"Get her something to cover up with. I will be back by 9 and we'll have guests tomorrow so make sure everything is spotless." I was taken back by his words as to why he would tell his maid to let me cover up.

"Thank you." For the first time today, I didn't feel angry towards someone and this time only sincerity laced my time as I was grateful. I had imagined him to take me up to his room and do something, but instead he was letting me be.

He looked over at me and said nothing but only gave yet another nod before walking out of his big house. I stared after him for a second before returning my gaze to Martha who looked at me with sympathy and awe.

"As beautiful as you look my dear, I doubt you're very comfortable, aren't you?" I shook my head at her words, and unlike every other person today who seemed to have left permanent marks on my arm because of their harshness, Martha took my hand gently in hers and lead the way upstairs.

Willingly I followed her as she took me inside a room before disappearing inside a massive walk in closet. I took the time to look around the room and noticed how it didn't seem used yet it had a closet full of clothes. Just at that time Martha came out with a bunch of fabric in her hands.

"Here you go dear. Sir has informed me that you wear a scarf to cover your hair so I have one here for you."

I looked at Martha and felt grateful of her kindness and surprisingly at Mr Colton too who took the liberty of making me feel at least a little comfortable. "Thank you so much." I said and enveloped Martha in a hug.

She seemed taken back but nonetheless wrapped her arms around me and chuckled at me. Soon I pulled away and as Martha left the room, I began changing into some sweats with an oversized shirt that must have been Mr Colton's and put my hijab on.

I had no idea what to expect by being here and just how long I was going to be here for, but I found some peace knowing that my worst fear of being raped won't be happening. There was still that part of me that yearned for Shoaib to come rescue me so that I could come home with him, but of course he wouldn't even know where I was right now.

Then again, being kidnapped by Ross and getting sold off to a somewhat understanding man seemed a little too good to be true. Realisation hit me and I suddenly stood up, trying to desperately figure out what it is that these people are hiding from me.

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Picture on the right is Mr Colton while the one on the left is Ross. Thoughts on this chapter? 😊 There wasn't any action happening here, but it's yet to come - this is just the beginning.
Do you think Mr Colton is hiding something with the way he's behaving? I'm pretty sure if I was kidnapped and sold, I would be expecting the person to pounce on me 😭